Cicero's Sportsman's Park, a horse-racing facility that has been closed since 2003, will be demolished to make way for a shopping center.

Town officials this week awarded two contracts totaling $1.5 million to N.F. Demolition of Cicero and JABCO Industrial Services of Chicago Heights to do the work.

Officials said the companies will remove several buildings, a retaining wall and parking lots.

The leveling of the site will prepare the land for the last phase of the Sportsman's Park development project: 68 acres of retail stores and parking.

Phase 2, the demolition of the site, comes two months after the completion of the first phase, a $6.8 million, 11-acre outdoor festival park across from the Sportsman's site at 3301 S. Laramie Ave. The new Cicero Community Park